A novel sonochemical synthesis and nanostructured assembly of polyvinylpyrrolidone-capped CdS colloidal nanoparticles

Abstract Nanoparticles of cadmium sulfide (nano-CdS) have been successfully prepared from an aqueous solution of cadmium chloride and sodium sulfide by a novel sonochemical method. Through adding polyvinylpyrrolidone K30 (PVP) as the dispersant, a yellow translucent colloidal solution of cadmium sulfide which was considerably stable within at least one month was obtained. The characterizations of nanoparticles by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and FT-IR spectroscopy showed good properties of small size, high surface area and crystal structure. The size of the prepared nanoparticles was about 3–5 nm according to XRD spectra and TEM images. Poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) has been employed to fabricate multilayer films on quartz wafer and indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode in a layer-by-layer manner. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) displayed the dense coverage of the substrate surface by the nanoparticles. UV–vis absorption spectroscopy confirmed the consecutive growth of PDDA/nanoparticles layer pairs. The photoelectrochemical and the electrochemical behaviors of the prepared CdS particle were examined as well.